“The whole dissident idea attracts a lot of crazies. And then all of a sudden, without realizing it, you've become one of them." Peter Duesberg, 2009

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Denying AIDS: Conspiracy Theories, Pseudoscience, and Human Tragedy

Seeking Stories of AIDS Denialism

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Friday, April 3, 2009

South Africa’s former President Thabo Mbeki allowed AIDS denialism to hijack his country’s Health Ministry and AIDS policies, resulting in hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths. Mbeki chose denialism over realism. He chose pseudoscience over science. He chose to listen to Peter Duesberg and David Rasnick over legitimate scientists, including some of the world’s leading AIDS researchers in his very own country. AIDS denialism everywhere is nothing less than a crime against humanity. The current South African government, like the shamed Apartheid Government before it, now apologizes for allowing Mbeki’s denialist policies.ANC plans stunning apology on AidsThe ANC is planning a post-election apology to the nation for former president Thabo Mbeki’s disastrous HIV-Aids policy.By Claire Keeton, Dominic Mahlangu and Nkululeko Ncana

THE ANC is planning a post-election apology to the nation for former president Thabo Mbeki’s disastrous HIV-Aids policy, which has been blamed for the deaths of thousands of infected people.

“We owe it to the nation. We, as MPs, were there and we failed to rise up,” said an ANC MP.

The Times has established that there are behind-the-scenes discussions within the ANC alliance about the need for MPs who served during Mbeki’s tenure to apologise to South Africans for failing to publicly question his denialist views on HIV-Aids.

Insiders said the proposed move enjoys support from within the ANC, the South African Communist Party and Cosatu.

The proposal would see an ANC parliamentary ad-hoc committee, composed of ANC MPs, drawing up the apology to the nation.

Parliament’s deputy speaker, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, has also called for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission into the role of government in relation to the pandemic.

Madlala-Routledge served as deputy to former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang for three years, before she was fired by Mbeki in 2007.

She championed HIV-Aids issues and received widespread support for disagreeing with her boss’s controversial views on the pandemic. She also undertook a public Aids test in 2006, a move that irritated her former bosses.

Last year, the Harvard School of Public Health released a damning report that revealed that more than 330000 lives were lost because of Mbeki’s and Tshabalala-Msimang’s failure to provide antiretroviral drugs between 2000 and 2005.

The report placed the blame on Mbeki’s government for failing to implement a feasible and timely antiretroviral treatment programme.

Madlala-Routledge said South Africa could benefit from a TRC process on HIV-Aids.“Will a greater understanding of this period of Aids denialism not help prevent something like this happening again?” she asked at the launch of a book on the subject on Wednesday night.

Health Minister Barbara Hogan’s spokesman, Fidel Hadebe, said he was not in a position to say whether the minister would support such a move, as she was on a plane back from China at the time the inquiry was made.

Professor Salim Abdool-Karim, director of the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine in Durban, supported the call for an HIV-Aids truth commission: “This would be trying to reconcile what happened so we can put it in the past and not keep raising it.”

He said he did not see an HIV-Aids truth commission as merely a means of granting amnesty, but rather as exposing what went wrong with the government’s response to the pandemic through the testimony of people who were centrally involved.

Abdool-Karim was one of only four orthodox HIV scientists among dissidents on Mbeki’s first HIV-Aids panel in 1999, which was later expanded to include more scientists from South Africa.

1 comment:

I agree that a truth and reconciliation commission around the South African government's response to the epidemic is an excellent idea. I wonder if there is any real steam behind this idea to push it forward...?

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AIDS Denialism on Law & Order

If you missed the Law & Order episode 'Retro' on AIDS denialism you will want to see the 2-minute Replay. This episode portrays a woman who denies she has HIV in which she and her infant daughter both die of AIDS. Sound familiar? Click the pic to watch.

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In Denying AIDS, Seth Kalichman provides a fascinating look into the thinking of those who propagate AIDS myths and the negative impact they have on our response to a deadly disease. He shows us how AIDS pseudoscience confuses the public and threatens sound public health policy. Anyone who cares about the global HIV/AIDS pandemic should read this book. Helene D. Gayle, Chair of the 2009 US Presidential Council on AIDS, CEO CARE USA, former Assistant Surgeon GeneralSeth Kalichman brilliantly uses a psychological lens to expose the wacky world that creates and maintains its presence despite the untold numbers of deaths and suffering it has caused. This book is a wake up call to policy makers and scientists, particularly in places most affected by the pandemic, that denialism must be confronted if we want to bring it under control. A must read for those who want to know more about the power and influence of pseudoscience.Michael Merson, Director, Global Health Institute at Duke University and Former Director of the World Health Organization's Global Program on AIDS.

This excellent book examines the detailed history of HIV/AIDS denialism as well as its damaging impact throughout the world. HIV/AIDS denialism and its proponents have created confusion when the clear provision of scientifically accurate communication was most needed.James Curran, Dean of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, Former Director of the CDC HIV/AIDS Division.

Seth Kalichman has superbly captured the contradictions inherent in AIDS denialism. He has deftly uncovered its religious-like fervor, its vociferous proponents and passionate opponents as well as its destructive force when legitimized by the South African President.Salim S. Abdool Karim, Member of the 2000 South African Presidential Panelon AIDS, Professor at University of KwaZulu-Natal, and Director of Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)

Royalties from Denying AIDS are donated to buy HIV treatments in Africa